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“We scored and then we gave up two goals on the two following shifts and you can't do that. You want to keep the pressure and the momentum. I didn't have a very good game. I know I have to be better, forget about this one as quickly as possible and get back to work.” – Jarome Iginla
The Calgary Flames completed their longest home stand of the 2009-10 season in disappointing fashion, dropping a 3-1 decision to the injury-depleted Detroit Red Wings to finish the five-game Saddledome stretch with a 3-2 record.
Many of the same troubles that have plagued the club in the first quarter of the campaign were evident on Saturday night as the team was unable to contain the swift-skating Wings or interrupt the flow of Detroit’s patented puck control game.
Despite a Herculian effort by Miikka Kiprusoff – Kipper the Keeper was magnificent again, blocking 27 of the 29 pucks directed his way - the Flames were a step slow and a shot behind for most of the evening, ineffective on offense and tentative on defense. Calgary mustered only 20 shots at Detroit’s Chris Osgood, a disappointingly low total given the frightful way the Motown veteran has been fighting the puck most of the season.
Press box prognosticators had predicted that the lengthy stand at home would give the coaching staff ample opportunity to preach what they practiced. While there was one notable improvement – shot totals against were down - the inability of the team to play a consistent 60-minute game, eliminate defensive zone breakdowns and cut off the passing lanes in front of Kiprusoff continues to be alarming.
Anatomy of Home Stand
Record: 3 wins, two losses
Goals for: 19; power-play goals for: 3; short-handed goals for: 2
Goals against: 14; power-play goals against: 5; short-handed goals against: 1
Balanced Beam: The Flames’ 19 goals on the home stand were scored by 13 different players – Nigel Dawes led all Calgary snipers with three goals in the five-game stretch.
Top Ten: The Flames record before after their back-to-back losses was 7-2-1, which equaled the club’s best 10-game start to a season, tying the mark set by the 2001-02 edition of the team.
Backside Broadsided: The blueliners accounted for only three of the Flames 19 goals in the past five games although Robyn Regehr registered an assist in each of the quintet of matches for a career-best five-game points streak.
Momentum Modifications: The Flames simply surrender too many clustered goals. In three of the five games, the team allowed two goals in a span of less than a minute. Vancouver scored two goals in 39 seconds, Columbus scored a pair in 48 seconds and Detroit fired home a brace of bolts in 59 seconds.
Defensive Disruptions: In the loss to Colorado, the Flames defense parted like the Red Sea, allowing Wolski to skate unimpeded through the slot and flick home the winning tally. In the final minute of Saturday’s loss to Detroit, Dion Phaneuf’s errant pass was gobbled up by Red Wing opportunist Kirk Maltby, who quickly deposited his gift into the vacated cage.
Lead Bleeds: In both of the two losses on the home stand, the Flames took the lead but swiftly surrendered their advantage. Colorado fell behind 2-0 in the opening 75 seconds of the game but leveled the match by the 17:00 minute mark of the opening frame and won the affair in the third period. After the Flames took a 1-0 lead in the middle frame against Detroit, the Wings needed less than a minute to tie the game and take a lead they would never relinquish.
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